Depression – this is a term that many christians feel is a spiritual weakness of sorts. Many say that a child of God will not face depression. But this is far from the truth, I feel we have taboo-ed it so much, so a person would never admit to being depressed. Because if they do admit it, sadly there are situations where their loved ones reject them and their struggles…

Every person is different, a thing that wouldn’t hurt me may hurt someone else if they were in our shoes and vice versa. So we can’t write it off as easily, but that is what’s happening. Not many are willing to acknowledge a hurting person, they just want to box it into a “bad christian”, “does not pray” label and judge.

Depression has been known to affect even children of God from the Bible, or have we forgotten about Jonah, Job, Elijah, King Saul, David – all these had seen God’s greatness, yet they had times of doubt and weakness, where they struggled. But God did not write them off from His love.

So what happens is a person who is going through some form of sadness or struggle, many of them put a mask on their lives and pretend to be fine, thing is while they keep all these thoughts inside, the darkness of depression clouds their minds and eventually takes them away from God’s presence and reassurance.

The thing about depression, from what I experienced, is that you realize what is actually ailing you only when it is too late, when it’s beyond what your mental or physical or spiritual strength can handle..

A book I just finished reading ‘When Joy Came To Stay’ by Karen Kingsbury, revolves around how depression almost destroys a family life, but God prevails and they come through. There is something so healing about reading Christian books, and the lessons you learn are so helpful.

Quoting from the book’s post thoughts section ‘Distraction often happens first. We start off meaning well, reading our Bibles and viewing life with spiritual eyes. But over time complacency veils our enthusiasm until we wake up and lie down with thoughts that have nothing to do with our Savior. We opt for a cup of coffee instead of a chapter of Scripture to get us going, and we become so caught up in the here and now we forget that our focus, that our entire lives must be directed at the ever-after if we are to live free, effective, joyful godly lives.

When we are fully distracted, we no longer tap into the greatest resource given mankind?the Holy Spirit. Instead we walk by a compass of our own design, and in very little time end up lost and confused. This is when discouragement hits.

Depression, then, is the combination of the two: distraction and discouragement, multiplied to whatever degree the enemy is seeking to destroy us.’

Recent news mentions about Pr. Rick Warren’s son taking his own life, and it seems that he too was suffering from mental depression. Tragically, he gave up his life, one moment of despair and the burden of his mental struggles, and a young man’s life was cut short, lost forever. I can imagine the thoughts in his head.

Personally, in my depths of depression, the clouds of darkness did bring these thoughts to my mind… But thankfully, I realized that I needed help and that I needed God to get me out of it.. I prayed so much about it, thing is I never realized that the answer to my prayers would cause so much pain..

Today, I am over my depression, and I praise God for that.. He helped me see that I was putting my joy in people, in things of this world, but I could not expect to live joyfully as long as I did that.. Reminded me of the verse 2 Corinthians 4:18 “¹⁸ So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

If any of you out there battling depression, reach out to people who can help you with prayer or encouragement or else consult professional help. Know that you are not alone in this, God will bring you out of the darkness, you just need to get through it.

And folks, if you have a loved one battling depression, firstly don’t judge them, just because you don’t understand them or their struggles. If you judge or condemn them, you have mentally closed the door to being able to help them. Treat it as an illness, that they need to recover from. Again, if you feel guilty of being the cause of what may have hurt someone to the point of depression, pray and help them heal, they will forgive you if you give them love and give them the chance to recover. Know that most of the time, all we need is love and support and encouragement and lots of prayer to get over it.

Ending this post with few blessed verses from the Bible that helped me –

1 Peter 5:6-7 – “⁶ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. ⁷ Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”

Isaiah 26:3 – “³ You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.”

Philippians 4:13 – “¹³ I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

God bless!